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Retrospective analysis of mandated national occurrence monitoring and regulatory decisions
Author(s) -
Roberson J. Alan,
Eaton Andrew
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.5942/jawwa.2014.106.0040
Subject(s) - outreach , environmental monitoring , environmental science , agency (philosophy) , maximum contaminant level , clean water act , environmental planning , environmental health , environmental protection , contamination , environmental resource management , business , water quality , environmental engineering , political science , medicine , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , biology , law
The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act amendments mandated a new process for selecting new contaminants for national drinking water regulations that included required national monitoring through the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) program. Two rounds of UCMR monitoring have been completed and the third UCMR monitoring is ongoing. Zero detects were found nationally for 30 of 50 (60%) contaminants in the first two rounds of UCMR monitoring. Contaminants were detected in approximately 20% of water systems for the first two rounds of UCMR monitoring, with lower reporting limits in the third UCMR increasing the percentage of detections. Water systems have spent more than $85 million on UCMR monitoring, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) should increase its outreach to the drinking water community and solicit the assistance of the community to optimize the usefulness of future UCMRs in the regulatory development process.